Applegreen revenues increase by 15% to €1bn

Revenues at Applegreen rose by 15 per cent to €1 billion in 2015, the Irish petrol forecourt retailer said on Monday, as strong consumer sentiment in Ireland helped drive the group forward.

In its first set of full-year results since floating on the Irish Stock Exchange in June 2015, Applegreen reported that earnings (EBITDA) advanced by 26 per cent to € 28.9 million in the 12 months to December 31st 2015, while like for like growth in store and food gross profit was up by 8.9 per cent, as the group expanded its reach to 200 sites, up from 152 in 2014. Profits before tax fell back by 6.8 per cent to €13.9 million.

Applegreen said there was “considerable volatility” in the oil price during the year with increases in the first half followed by decreases in the second half but, overall, the impact on the business was “not significant”.

Bob Etchingham, chief executive of Applegreen said that performance was driven by new site openings in both the latter part of 2014 and early 2015 as well as the increased contribution from food driven by its upgrade and rebranding programme.

“We have had a positive start to 2016, adding four service area sites and seven petrol filling stations to the estate and we continue to see good opportunities for green field and bolt-on expansion. Consumer sentiment is strong in both our key markets, particularly the Republic of Ireland, and we are confident that our distinctive retail offering in the forecourt sector will continue to deliver growth through 2016.”

Ireland

In Ireland, srong consumer sentiment saw revenue rise by 12.6 per cent and gross profit by 23 per cent, as like for like store and food sales increased by 4.9 per cent and like for like gross profit increased by 6.5 per cent.Fuel gross profit increased by 19.3% with a like for like margin decrease of 0.6% due to fuel price volatility and a strong comparable performance in the prior year.

Applegreen added five services area sites - two sites in the west of Ireland, one in Dublin, one in Kerry as well as a newly built motorway service area in Kilkenny on the M9 - and seven petrol filling stations in the Republic, and expanded its network of dealer sites by 25 during the year. Ten sites were re-branded / upgraded incorporating a new food offer in 2015.

So far in 2016, Applegreen has added four new sites, including a service area in Meath.

UK

In the UK, revenue increased by 18.1 per cent during 2015 while gross profit increased to € 34.7 million in 2015 from € 23 million in 2014. Its site numbers increased by eight including the first motorway service area in Northern Ireland. It also launched two new food offers- Chopstix and Greggs - and increased the number of its food outlets by 29 across.